Tasmanian timber group Gunns Ltd has been placed in a trading halt, as the firm works to close a transaction that is relevant to the release of its interim results.
Gunns was due to release its first-half financial results today.
The company will remain in the trading halt until close of trade on February 14, or until an announcement is made.
Gunns last traded at 52 cents.
Story on Business Spectator HERE
Mercury, Saturday:
• Gunns sell-off hinted
GUNNS Limited is believed to be selling a plantation asset before the release next week of its half-year accounts.
Leading forestry analyst Robert Eastment said it was clear the struggling timber group had “the shingle up” on a range of assets and was waiting for a deal to close.
Gunns entered a trading halt yesterday, advising the market that its shares would be suspended until Tuesday pending a transaction that was relevant to its half-year results.
Since late October Gunns shares have been in virtual free fall, diving from 79c last October to 52c on Thursday as management offloaded assets to relieve debt to restore a much troubled balance sheet.
The company has closed a woodchip mill that employed 200 in North-West Tasmania, and will shut another in Western Australia next month.
In a note to clients last month, Macquarie Bank warned investors Gunns faced a tough 12 months as a result of foreign exchange pressures on woodchip and sawn timber revenues.
But it suggested the company’s balance sheet could be restored by selling 50 per cent of its 225,000ha in freehold forests, now valued at between $600 million and $650 million and producing $377 million worth of timber.
Mr Eastment, a professional economist and forester who runs the market advisory firm IndustryEdge …
• Changes to forest burn-offs
FORESTRY Tasmania’s regeneration burning season will start soon and last longer in an attempt to reduce smoke problems, which escalated last year.
Changes to the burning program were announced yesterday to improve air quality and increase communication with the community.
Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon said the changes flowed from a review of a burn in the Huon Valley last April that may have contributed to national air quality standards being exceeded.
Among the changes, days on which poor smoke dispersion is likely will be declared no-burn days.
The regeneration burn season will start earlier and finish later than in the past in a bid to reduce the number of burns on any given day.
Daily advisories will be issued at or before 11am on the morning of the planned burns.
